Dogs vs Cats in race for best pet honours.

The results from a scientific study in to the Great Debate amongst pet owners are in: dogs make better pets than cats.

In a recent study looking at both animals’ character, intelligence and usefulness, experts compared 11 traits from brain size to environmental impact with dogs coming out on top in six of the categories compared to cats’ five.

Staff at New Scientist magazine gave the cats’ team points for having bigger brains in proportion to their body size.

Cats’ brains also contain more cells, with about 1.4 million more devoted to complex functions such as memory and attention.

Felines also scored the most popular vote, with 204 million living in the top 10 cat-owning nations compared to 173 million dogs in the 10 countries where canines are the favorite pet.

Cats are also more efficient at drawing attention from their owners, with blissed-out purrs actually disguising a call to be noticed that their owners find irresistible.

Although dogs can vary their barks, they cannot compete with the attention-seeking of cats.

But in the other categories examined – many of which related to how the animals interact with humans – dogs had the edge.